For 40 years, the Crossmen have enriched and shaped the lives of young musicians through music education and the performing arts. The 2014 Drum Corps International summer tour represents Crossmen's 40th competitive season. Follow along as Crossmen Executive Director and Corps Director, Fred Morrison, records the daily highlights of the Crossmen Alma Gitana Tour.

Crossmen Blog

Owatonna High School is a very familiar stop for Crossmen. Each of the last three years we have been housed here in preparation for the DCI Regional in Minneapolis. The small town welcomes us and every year some of the local residents come by to enjoy rehearsal throughout the day. The 330 mile trip from Salem went according to plan and the rehearsal morning was started as routinely as possible.

We have our fair share of bumps, bruises and ills so the shuttle to the local care center is getting a bit of a workout. Life on the road doesn't lend itself to quick recoveries. The spirit of this crop of Crossmen is hard to hold back. They hate taking any time off from rehearsal and we have to make some of them take a break in order to recover. Overall though we are in great shape for what is practically the half way point of tour.

We have two former Teal Sound members coming in to fill alternate roles. It is a shame how their season came to an end. Lots of people tried to help them make it to the end but the obstacles were too steep to overcome. On the bright side, many have been able to catch on with other corps. Both members that we picked up are ageouts so it was more a more pressing matter for them to catch on in their final DCI season of eligibility. Welcome aboard guys!

The day went pretty smoothly until just after the dinner hour. A huge system came at us and ended ensemble prematurely. It was a thing of beauty to see everyone chip in and help the pit move all of their gear indoors to protect it from the elements. The corps was able to take advantage of the wet weather by getting a little chill time before lights out. Sometimes that is the best for all involved. There is one person that pulled off a superman trick though. Scott stayed up all night modifying the "ecology" printed flags to improve their impact in the show. It seems that the yellow on green print was too hard to distinguish so the designers came up with the solution of attaching bright blue fabric where the detail was lacking so that you could distinguish the message from high in the grandstands. I saw Scott Reeves late that night working his magic and when I went back the next morning he was still at it putting on the finishing touches to the last flag. His daughter Annie was asleep near by at her father's side. There is no doubt why Scott was named volunteer of the year for Crossmen last year. He makes things happen for Crossmen no matter the time commitment or self sacrifice. On top of it he is very talented and never complains. Crossmen love Scott and Annie. Thank you my friend!